Ministry on the secular campus

Developing a dynamic ministry on the secular university campus.

Daniel M. Forbes, Ed.D., LMHC, NCC, CFLE, is pastor of the University Seventh-day Adventist Church, Orlando, Florida.

I want to share Christ on my college cam pus but it's a highly secular school and I find it hard, especially when my professors don't profess Christianity or are openly opposed to it."

"I'm confronted daily with the theory of evolution in many of my classes."

"Several important exams are scheduled on Sabbath, and I don't know what to do."

Statements like these are common, coming from Seventh-day Adventist students in a secular university or college, especially where there might not be an Adventist presence for miles. Frequently such educational institutions are located in small communities. Even if there is a local church nearby, in many cases it is a small congregation with limited resources and pressing challenges that already demand its attention and tax its resources.

What could justify a pastor placing the initiating of a secular campus ministry near the top of his list of priorities? Why even begin when you already know it will involve working with state educational systems that are probably not church-friendly? Why follow unfamiliar regulations and guidelines? Why go through all that just to obtain official recognition as a student organization on the campus of a nearby state university or college, when you know that your request may be declined on the basis of some technicality?

For more than twelve years I've been working with youth and young adults in secular campus ministry in two major universities the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida. In the latter, in addition to being the facilitator of Campus Advent Outreach, I serve as a member of the United Campus Ministries.

This ministry has helped my work in many ways. I have learned to address the concern I have for students on the college campus. I have experienced a sense of personal spiritual fulfillment by seeing the work progress in an area that has often had to take second place to other pressing issues in ministry. I've found in campus ministry a source of outstanding young people and of a bank of rich talent and creative ability that can energize and revolutionize a local congregation to the point where it cannot remain the same. Let me share a few things that I've learned over the years that can help open the way to prioritizing a campus ministry, making it a viable outreach ministry.

Search out the open doors

Prayerfully search for God's guidance to open doors of opportunity in contacting Adventist students and faculty to begin functioning as a core unit of fellowship. Perhaps these students will have friends or relatives on campus. Chances are you will find them in some of the most unusual places. The point is to find them and get them involved.

Once I found an Adventist professor on the faculty of the medical college. He had become inactive in the Church. I asked him to help me by being our campus ministry's faculty sponsor. He was surprised by the request, but was more than willing to assist us.

Some people may be hiding their faith for one reason or another, but they may still be able to play some kind of contact or even leadership role. Perhaps they are waiting for you to seek them out where they are and show them that they are not alone and that it's OK to be a committed Christian on their campus. They just have to know that you're there, and more importantly, that you're there for them. For them to just show up at your church could add much to your church program, especially if they become involved in the life of the church.

Begin organizing

Contact the appropriate department or office on campus to find out what is required to set up a registered student religious organization. Begin the process by following the procedures that are provided by the department. More than likely you will need to have a small number of selected students to serve as officers of your organization. Look for Adventist students willing and committed to serve. You may even need to register for a class yourself to qualify to fill a necessary organizational or advisory position.

When your group is organized, on many campuses it will automatically become eligible to use the school's recreational facilities, meeting places, appropriate auditoriums, and other related services. Many universities will allow you to use other facilities without cost or for a small fee.

At these locations you may con duct weekly Bible studies or other activities. You may find that you are permitted to have information booths on campus at designated sites and times as well as the right to distribute literature, advertisements, and other material about upcoming events.

On our campus we've used evangelistic videos, brochures of upcoming meetings and other announcement procedures to invite students to events. We've also offered to give away gifts and other literature about our ministry. We've advertised mission trip opportunities and other similar events for young adults.

Some members of our group have chosen to go to designated areas on campus, giving out literature to interested students on a weekly basis, telling them who we are, and inviting them to our weekly Bible study meetings on campus. In doing this they met other Adventist students we did not know were on campus.

Perhaps it will be possible for you to be listed on your community's college Web site for the purpose of getting the word out to Adventist or former Adventist students and their friends that you are there to minister to them and that they are welcome to worship with your congregation.

As our church has, you also may have volunteers to provide transportation for students, picking them up at a designated location on cam pus and taking them to church on Sabbath mornings.

Approach your Conference leader ship to see if any funding is available to assist in such a ministry. You'll find, as I have, that leadership can be very responsive to this unique form of ministry and evangelism.

Make a spiritual home away from home

Let your message to the students be that your church wants to be their spiritual home away from home. Then find ways to show them that you're serious. Let the students know that you are happy to have them worshiping with you. Make sure they know when your church has fellow ship dinners. Food is a great motivator for anyone, especially students away from home and living on a budget.

Consider doing what our church found to be successful: Have an extra Sabbath set aside for a fellowship dinner just for young adults and college students. We chose to have our dinners for the students in the homes of various church members. Attendance at such functions quickly rose and students began planning their schedules around such special functions.

Plan for a special Sabbath program once or twice a year where your church emphasizes secular campus ministry and welcomes the students back each semester. Find ways to let the students become involved in the worship service. Explore new and creative outreach ministries in which students can be involved. Encourage them to become active in other areas of church life as well.

One of the projects in which our group has been involved is a feeding and witnessing ministry to the home less in our community.

A young adult prayer ministry for the needs of the youth and the church might never have happened had it not been for the willing efforts of the students to serve the church.

Our congregation has also volunteered to answer phones on-the-air for the annual telethon at the local public television station wearing T-shirts generously funded by our Conference Youth Department. We've even hosted our own student organized Special Olympics on a Sunday morning at the University's track and field facility.

It's surprising how quickly word spreads on campus when students learn from experience that a particular church is the place where they are appreciated and loved for who they are and what they have to contribute to the worship experience. When a congregation is willing to guide them and give them a chance to grow and exercise their gifts and talents for God, they appreciate it and it becomes a special place for them.

We have also found that after graduation, the spiritual bonds and friendships that have been made are so strong, causing some students to decide to stay in the area and become members of the local church.

Look at the campus ministry as a mission field

I am pastoring University Seventh-day Adventist Church in Orlando, Florida. It received its name many years ago because of its location on a street called University Boulevard. At one time, youth and young adult attendance was a dauntingly low point. Prayerfully our church made the secular student population a part of its mission.

Now the University Church is not merely known as the church on University Boulevard, but as a church for university students. It overflows with a growing number of young people who praise God and are truly loved and appreciated for who they are and what they have to offer by a more seasoned congregation that was willing to step out in faith and give secular campus ministry the priority it deserves. Our congregation is richer and better spiritually because of our ministry.

Daniel M. Forbes, Ed.D., LMHC, NCC, CFLE, is pastor of the University Seventh-day Adventist Church, Orlando, Florida.

April 2002

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